Word: affliction
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...sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, the federally chartered agencies that buy mortgages in the secondary market and virtually guarantee the availability of home loans for working stiffs. The breakpoint is high enough--$240,000 this year--that the higher interest rates on loans of that size afflict only one in five buyers nationwide. And so what? They can afford it, right? Don't be so sure. In today's torrid housing market, prices in some regions are escalating far faster than personal income, shoving more home buyers into jumboland without a paycheck to match. In Louisville, Dallas...
This was the worst catastrophe to afflict the fragile patrimony of Italian art history since the 1966 flood in Florence, but the Italian church and civil authorities rashly promised to have the basilica restored and open to the public again in time for Christmas 1999. The restoration cost was estimated at $60 million--the price, more or less, of a single Van Gogh, but not easy to raise. The aim of this show, then, is to remind the public of the Assisi disaster and of the urgency of its repair...
...physicians are raving bigots who haven't progressed since the days when doctors routinely doubled or tripled the strength of X rays administered to blacks because they supposedly had thicker skin than Caucasians. To the contrary, what this study shows is the extent to which subconscious racist attitudes still afflict even highly educated, humane white people who sincerely believe they do not have a prejudiced bone in their body. In what might be called the Alfred E. Neuman syndrome--after the Mad magazine character whose doofus slogan was "What--me worry?"--people in this group tend to react with shocked...
...Strokes afflict 600,000 Americans each year. In 80% of cases the culprit is some kind of clot that obstructs the flow of blood through an artery. But for a variety of reasons, blood-starved brain cells don't die right away. If the offending clot is broken up quickly enough, normal blood flow is restored and the brain is spared...
Alternative minimum tax. Designed to afflict only the superrich, this monster increasingly soaks the middle class. More than 1 million taxpayers will owe it this year, and 9 million by 2008--including many earning considerably less than $100,000 a year. Little more than a decade ago, fewer than 100,000 people were subject to the AMT. It's a complicated tax that targets folks who avoid most traditional income taxes through large credits and deductions. High earners in high-tax states are most vulnerable, but anyone taking a large deduction for business expenses can fall victim. Tip: consult...